On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Magnum Photos, and to celebrate the community of photographers of which he is a part, Magnum Photographer Martin Parr curated a selection of the print swaps from which David Hurn has built an extraordinary collection.

“In 1958, a chance encounter in Trafalgar Square affected my future life. I was photographing the pigeons. Another photographer, Sergio Larrain, was doing the same. We became close friends and he, later, gave me as a present, my first collectible prints.” – David Hurn

“It is very apparent that Hurn has a fine eye for photography. Every one of the images he has selected is a winner. The images range across the many genres of photography, across the broad spectrum of Magnum photographers.” Martin Parr

With a career spanning over six decades, Hurn, like Parr, is also a connoisseur and patron of documentary photography. Over the years he has amassed more than 600 prints, from the 19th century to the present. Last year, the entire collection was gifted to the National Museum Wales, where in September an inaugural exhibition marked the opening of the Museum’s first permanent gallery dedicated to photography.

Parr’s selection spans Bill Brandt through to Diana Markosian and begins with a group of images by colleagues, such as Sergio Larrain and Bruce Davidson, whose work was to influence Hurn’s own practice. We then move into a playful presentation in which images have been paired or grouped into larger relationships around a key Hurn image.